'Families don't know if they will have food for Passover'

Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay packs food baskets for needy families and slams the government for 'ignoring the poor'.

Hezki Baruch , 22/03/18 22:03

Avi Gabbay at Sirkin base

PR

Zionist Union Chairman Avi Gabbay packed Passover baskets that are destined for needy families at the IDF's Sirkin base on Thursday. The volunteer effort was coordinated by Israel Prize laureate Rabbi Yitzhak David Grossman, the rabbi of the northern city of Migdal Ha'emek.

According to Gabbay, the IDF's yearly campaign distributing food baskets to the needy "showed the beautiful side of Israel".

"The thousands of people who want to do good and have not forgotten the needy people and the families who remain hungry on the holiday, which unfortunately the State of Israel has often and ignored," said Gabbay.

Gabbay added that witnessing the volunteer effort "touched me personally...I should not have succeeded having grown up in the neighborhood which I did. My personal dream is that the opportunity I have received in life will be given to every child in Israel - no matter where he lives," Gabbay said.

Gabbay, the son of Morrocan immigrants, grew up in Jerusalem's Baka neighborhood. He later became the CEO of the Bezeq telecommunications conglomerate.

"Israel is a country with a strong economy, but what is the point if there are hundreds of thousands of ashamed and hungry families who do not know if they can celebrate Passover or if they will get a basket of food or not?" continued Gabbay.

"This government wants us to fight each other. Sometimes the leftists and other times the haredim. Sometimes the police and sometimes the army. The public needs unifying leadership and this is the leadership we will offer we come to power."